Wednesday, June 15, 2016

SpaceX Falcon9 First Stage Crashes on Landing Attempt

SpaceX was hoping to nail its fourth experimental landing in a row of a used rocket on a drone ship at sea, but it looks like that streak will remain at three for now.

"It appears as though we lost a vehicle," said SpaceX engineer Kate Tice on the company's live webcast of the Wednesday mission, which actually had a primary charge of hauling two new satellites toward orbit aboard one of the company's Falcon 9 rockets.

That mission was proceeding normally as the webcast concluded just after 8 a.m. PT. But the space nerds of the world were equally or more interested in the secondary mission of the day, which was to successfully land the first stage of the rocket safely on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.